---
title: "Twin Peaks"
year: 1990
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/twin-peaks"
fi1m_id: "twin-peaks"
imdb_id: "tt0098936"
tmdb_id: 1920
wikidata_id: "Q2085"
fi1m_score: 86
critics_score: 86
critics_reviews: 6
published: "2026-09-13"
updated: "2026-09-20T21:23:10.856237+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Twin Peaks (1990)

Created by Mark Frost, David Lynch · MPA TV-14 · Drama, Mystery

## Identity

Twin Peaks

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/twin-peaks
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** twin-peaks
- **IMDb ID:** tt0098936
- **TMDB ID:** 1920
- **Wikidata ID:** Q2085
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098936/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/1920, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2085

**Fi1m score: 86** · Critics 86 from 6 reviews

*In a sentence:* A town this pretty ought to be less worrying

> *Twin Peaks* makes soap-opera jealousy funny, frightening and unexpectedly sad. Kyle MacLachlan gives its strangeness a steady centre, and we warmly recommend it, with a warning that its patience sometimes becomes drift.

## Synopsis

Private jealousies and corruption trouble a rural town in *Twin Peaks*. Kyle MacLachlan plays Dale Cooper, Michael Ontkean plays Harry S. Truman, and Lara Flynn Boyle plays Donna Hayward. Sherilyn Fenn appears as Audrey Horne alongside Richard Beymer as Benjamin Horne and Peggy Lipton as Norma Jennings. The programme combines drama and mystery with soap-opera storytelling, moving between the lives of the town’s inhabitants. Surreal details interrupt the apparent calm as the stories turn towards what people want, what they conceal and how they behave when their desires get in the way.

## Review

*Twin Peaks* is a richly involving series with stretches we would willingly shorten. David Lynch and Mark Frost build a rural soap around people who have plenty to hide. Their desires are familiar enough, but the peculiar behaviour that accompanies them keeps us from settling into the comfortable business of judging everybody. The programme takes their feelings seriously, even when their behaviour is funny, and that gives us a reason to care beyond wanting the mysteries explained.

Kyle MacLachlan’s Dale Cooper gives us someone to watch without constantly telling us how peculiar everything is. MacLachlan listens and speaks with a seriousness that makes the surrounding oddness more persuasive, and Michael Ontkean brings useful steadiness to Harry S. Truman. We laughed at MacLachlan’s solemn delivery, then found that same composure unsettling when it offered no reassurance. Sherilyn Fenn’s Audrey Horne brings a welcome alertness to the ensemble, while Lara Flynn Boyle’s Donna Hayward helps keep the emotion believable through the stranger passages.

Frank Byers’s cinematography makes the town appealing enough that we want to spend time there, despite the reasons to be wary. The attention given to faces and their surroundings means we keep looking even when the story is not moving quickly. Richard Hoover’s production design helps the everyday settings feel settled, which makes the peculiar behaviour within them harder to dismiss. The photography and the settings work particularly well together: neither needs to announce that something is wrong before the actors have begun.

Duwayne Dunham’s editing is at its most effective when a pause starts to feel slightly too long. We have time to notice the awkwardness, and then to wonder why it has become uncomfortable. Angelo Badalamenti’s music gives the melodrama warmth and weight, allowing feelings that might look excessive on paper to be taken seriously. There is tenderness in the score that the stranger passages need, especially when the humour threatens to make the people seem ridiculous.

The weakness is the amount of time some of this takes. The first series has eight episodes and the second has 22, and the longer stretch too often mistakes another complication for a reason to keep watching. Some supporting stories are much less absorbing than the people performing them. The jokes are welcome, but they cannot always conceal how little has changed from one scene to the next. The actors remain committed, but their conviction cannot make every detour necessary; there are passages we would rather have spent back with the stronger characters.

The third series, *The Return*, begins in 2017 and runs to 18 episodes, and it deserves to be included in the recommendation. Its slower stretches demand more patience, but the performances remain absorbing enough to make the commitment worthwhile. Against the tidy progress we might expect from a mystery programme, *Twin Peaks* asks us to attend to the way people speak and react even when they tell us little. Give it an uninterrupted evening to establish its pace; constant glances at another screen will do it no favours.

*Fi1m score 86, published 13 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Every one of the six reviews is positive, and most of them go further than that. The critics agree that the series brings surrealism, eroticism and the supernatural into a network soap. Praise clusters on David Lynch’s handling of tone, lurching from high drama to eccentric comedy to dread within a scene, and on the photography of a rural town whose prettiness hides greed and corruption. Kyle MacLachlan’s Agent Cooper and Angelo Badalamenti’s score are singled out, and several reviews credit the pilot’s eerie closing sequence with pointing the way to more cinematic television.

The reservations are few and the spread is narrow. The Guardian’s Nancy Banks-Smith, writing at the time, is the coolest voice, taking it as a wholesome, unusually funny and good-looking soap rather than a landmark. Den of Geek allows that the second series lost some of its audience. Most of the rest are written years later, judging the pilot with its influence already known.

## Straight answers

**Is Twin Peaks worth watching?**

*Twin Peaks* is worth watching for anyone who can settle into a slow, strange soap opera, and we scored it 86. Kyle MacLachlan's Dale Cooper gives the oddness a steady centre, and Angelo Badalamenti's music lets the melodrama be taken seriously. The 22-episode second series drifts, and some supporting stories are far less absorbing than the people playing them.

**How long is Twin Peaks, and what is it rated?**

*Twin Peaks* is rated TV-14 by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and mystery series.

**Where can I watch Twin Peaks in the US?**

*Twin Peaks* is streaming on MUBI, Paramount+, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV in the US, and it is also available to buy from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video from $12.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Twin Peaks, and is it suitable for children?**

*Twin Peaks* carries a UK 15 certificate and is not suitable for children. Its unease comes less from violence on screen than from pauses that run slightly too long and composure that offers no reassurance; we found Cooper's solemnity funny, then unsettling. Teenagers of fifteen and over who can sit with a slow, worrying mood will manage it.

**How does Twin Peaks compare to Blue Velvet?**

*Twin Peaks* is warmer and more patient than [*Blue Velvet*](https://film.one/film/blue-velvet); both find menace in respectable surroundings, but the series takes its time and its people's feelings seriously, while the film goes straight for discomfort. *Blue Velvet* is the tighter and more frightening of the two. Choose the series for a long, involving stay; choose the film for a single evening of dread.

**What should I watch after Twin Peaks?**

After *Twin Peaks*, try [*Blue Velvet*](https://film.one/film/blue-velvet) (1986, Fi1m 88): Lynch finds menace in respectable surroundings, with less patience for comfort. Then [*Picnic at Hanging Rock*](https://film.one/film/picnic-at-hanging-rock) (1975, Fi1m 88): A mystery made unsettling through landscape, restraint and the persistence of unease; and [*The White Ribbon*](https://film.one/film/the-white-ribbon) (2009, Fi1m 86): A rural community’s respectable manners do little to conceal its cruelty.

### Reviews we read (6)

- **Empire**, Rob Fraser (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the first series fantastic television marked by visual inventiveness, wild tonal shifts and strong performances, especially Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Cooper. It singles out the show's lasting influence on television for bringing surrealism, eroticism and the supernatural into the mainstream. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/twin-peaks-series-1-special-edition-review/)
- **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the 1990 pilot as a groundbreaking work that changed television by blending high drama, eccentric comedy and Lynch's signature unsettling vision. It singles out the pilot's pacing, character introductions and eerie final sequence as highlights that pointed the way to smarter, more cinematic TV. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/twin-peaks-pilot-1798203584)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Richard Hack (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the series as provocative, stunningly photographed storytelling and television at its best, crediting David Lynch with elevating the medium by revealing the greed, passion, jealousy and corruption beneath a picturesque rural town's idyllic veneer. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/twin-peaks-original-1990-tv-738436/)
- **The Guardian**, Nancy Banks-Smith (75/100, inferred): Banks-Smith finds the pilot episode a clean and wholesome yet surreal soap with flashes of striking acting, much better looking than average and far funnier than typical soaps. She praises Lynch's distinctive touch that keeps viewers off balance through odd details and notes its cult status in America. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/from-the-archive-blog/2014/oct/07/twin-peaks-review-nancy-banks-smith-guardian-1990)
- **Collider**, Allie Gemmill (90/100, inferred): The critic celebrates the 1990 pilot as a groundbreaking, unmatched TV event that shifted how stories could be told on network television and continues to influence the medium decades later. She singles out its blend of familiar small-town Americana with surreal, dreamlike elements, quirky characters, and Angelo Badalamenti’s score as what makes it endlessly rewatchable and culturally resonant. [Read](https://collider.com/twin-peaks-pilot-david-lynch-anniversary/)
- **Den of Geek**, Doralba Picerno (4/5): The critic praises Twin Peaks as a groundbreaking, humorous, sexy, and scary auteur soap opera that paved the way for darker TV shows, highlighting its quirky characters, surreal dream sequences, and enduring eeriness. They note that while the second series lost some audience interest, it remains an outstanding piece of television. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/twin-peaks-definitive-gold-box-edition-dvd-review/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Mark Frost, David Lynch
- **Creator:** Mark Frost, David Lynch
- **Director:** David Lynch, Lesli Linka Glatter, Caleb Deschanel, Tim Hunter, Duwayne Dunham, Tina Rathborne, Todd Holland, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Diane Keaton, Jonathan Sanger, James Foley, Mark Frost, Uli Edel, Graeme Clifford
- **Writer:** Mark Frost, David Lynch, Harley Peyton, Robert Engels, Barry Pullman, Tricia Brock, Scott Frost, Jerry Stahl
- **Story:** Mark Frost, David Lynch
- **Teleplay:** Mark Frost
- **Cinematography:** Frank Byers, Peter Deming, Ronald Víctor García
- **Editor:** Duwayne Dunham
- **Music:** Angelo Badalamenti
- **Production design:** Richard Hoover, Ruth De Jong, Patricia Norris
- **Costume design:** Sara Markowitz, Nancy Steiner
- **Producer:** David Latt
- **Cast:** Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper / Dougie Jones; Michael Ontkean as Harry S. Truman; Lara Flynn Boyle as Donna Hayward; Dana Ashbrook as Bobby Briggs; Richard Beymer as Benjamin Horne; Sherilyn Fenn as Audrey Horne; Warren Frost as Will Hayward; Peggy Lipton as Norma Jennings
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14
- **Release (the US):** 8 April 1990
- **Genres:** Drama, Mystery
- **Also in:** [Emmy Outstanding Drama Series winners](https://film.one/collections/emmy-drama.md) (Nominee, 1990)
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFuKtJjhBCQ

## Where to watch in the US

- MUBI: streaming, hd
- Paramount+: streaming, hd
- Pluto TV: free
- Paramount+: free, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Paramount+: add-on, hd
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- Apple TV: buy, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, sd

*Checked 2026-09-13.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IE, IN, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- TCA Heritage Award 2013: TCA Heritage Award (nominated)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 1991: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (nominated)
- Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series 1990: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series (nominated)
- Golden Globes 1990: Best Television Series – Drama (won)
- Peabody Awards 1990: Peabody Awards (won)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 1990: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) (nominated); Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music (nominated); Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics (nominated); Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Costumes for a Series (won); Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (won)
- TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama 1990: TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama (won)
- TCA Award for Program of the Year 1990: TCA Award for Program of the Year (won)

## If you liked this

- *Blue Velvet* (1986), Fi1m 88: Lynch finds menace in respectable surroundings, with less patience for comfort. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/blue-velvet.md)
- *The Kingdom* (1994): Hospital routines become unnerving, and the humour makes the unease worse.
- *The Singing Detective* (1986): A television drama equally willing to make fantasy and embarrassment inseparable.
- *Picnic at Hanging Rock* (1975), Fi1m 88: A mystery made unsettling through landscape, restraint and the persistence of unease. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/picnic-at-hanging-rock.md)
- *The White Ribbon* (2009), Fi1m 86: A rural community’s respectable manners do little to conceal its cruelty. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-white-ribbon.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/twin-peaks